With the current popularity of health and fitness there is an increased emphasis on exercising by the normal person. In the sports and athletic field, exercising has always been essential. In the competitive professional area the care and treatment of athletes are becoming highly important. One area of concern which covers the private person, as well as the amateur and professional athlete is the protection of muscles from strain or cramping, or the treatment of muscles after an injury has occurred.
It is well known that for proper care and treatment, muscle tissues should be heated in certain circumstances and chilled in others. For example, before strenuous exercise, those muscles which tend to cramp should be heated to enrich the blood supply to the appropriate areas. On the other hand, sprained or strained muscle tissues should be chilled to reduce swelling and further damage. Before encountering strenuous exercise, it is not uncommon for persons to warm and limber muscles in a whirlpool of hot water. The problem with this approach is that more muscles are affected than need be, and the deadening effect of hot water tends to desensitize all the muscles immersed in the hot water.
Ice packs of various forms are well known in the medical art and are commonly applied to sprained or otherwise injured limbs. With knee injuries such as caused by hyperextension, or after knee surgery, the alternate application of hot and cold material to the joint is a regular practice. However, it has recently been recognized that since there is very little blood flow through the kneecap, or patella, the alternate hot and cold treatment thereto should be avoided. Most previously developed ice packs include a pouch for holding ice, and a strap, or pair of straps, for holding the pouch in contact with the muscles involved. While this approach may work with an immobilized person, such as a hospitalized patient, these ice packs re not well adapted for quickly changing from hot to cold treatments, nor for staying in place should the person move about or exercise. Moreover, such prior ice packs often provide undesirable temperature treatment to the patella while treating adjacent muscles.
Another problem common to many ice packs is the condensation that forms as a result of temperature gradient between the inside and outside of the container. Condensed moisture creates an undesirable situation in that the pack tends to slide on the wounded limb, bandages or tape cannot adhere either to the wet limb or pack, and the moisture tends to expand fabrics and loosen an otherwise firmly secured bandage or wrap. Any attempt to insulate the ice pack to reduce condensation only thwarts the transfer of coldness to the injured limb. Moisture impervious linings have also been suggested, such as alluded to in U.S. Pat. No. 4,527,566. However, suitable moisture resistant materials are generally characterized as being somewhat insulating, or become the mechanism for the formation of condensation thereon.
There is therefore a need for a multicompartmented thermal pack adapted for heating or chilling limb muscles, and adapted for staying in position while exercising with or without temparature treatment. There is also an associated need for a thermal pack which reduces the undesirable effects of condensed moisture, and which prevents undesirable temperature treatment of the patella when heating adjacent muscles.